"But one person, a man, has visited her," answered the house detective.
"What sort of a man?" asked Gard.
"A large man with gray hair," said the house detective. "He is in her room now."
"Will you go up with me immediately?" ejaculated the special agent. "I must not fail to see this man."
"Assuredly," was the response, and they caught the next elevator.
The car they took was an express and was not to stop until it reached the eleventh floor. The next to it was a local, stopping at all floors. The express, going up with the detectives aboard, slackened its speed at the eighth floor while its operator gave some message to the boy on the local which had stopped there to take on a passenger. The cars were of an open-work structure and the passengers in one could see quite plainly those on the other as they passed. As the express passed Gard looked through at those riding on the other car. Imagine his consternation when, not two feet from him, he saw the man for whom he had been searching for months. As he gazed through the checked steel slats of the car side he was close enough to have put out his hand and laid it on his man had nothing intervened. Berliner faced him and, as the car paused, he and the special agent gazed directly into the eyes of each other. This was for but an instant and both cars were in motion again. The detective was being borne rapidly toward the top of the building and the fugitive less rapidly toward the ground.
"There is my man on the other elevator," Gard whispered hurriedly to the house detective. "Have the boy reverse and run down again."
The message was given to the operator, who obeyed instantly and some excuse was made to the passengers on the car. The local had been stopping at each floor and the express passed it and barely reached the ground floor first. There the two detectives stepped out and waited for the coming of the other car.
A moment later it arrived, much crowded, and began to disgorge itself. The two officers waited in instant readiness to capture the man whom they had seen at the eighth floor. But the car was emptied and he was not among the passengers.
"Where did the big gray-haired man get off?" the boy was asked.